Yeva, Resigned

 

Right now, at this very moment, Ella Hibbert and the Yeva are rounding Alaska's Point Barrow, the northernmost point of the United States and the North American mainland. She's currently at latitude 71° 24'. Unfortunately, every latitude hereafter will be lower.

This morning, Ella announced that after months of pushing through equipment failures in Greenland, and storms, ice, and even a grounding in the Northwest Passage, she's behind schedule and she and her team have made the difficult decision not to attempt the Northeast Passage over Russia this year. She and the Yeva will finish their season in Alaska, prepare for winter, and then return next summer to complete the solo Arctic Ocean circumnavigation.

The tipping point was when the Russian Deputy General for Navigation of the Northern Sea Route, the authority granting permission through Russian waters, warned that new ice was already forming in the Kara and Laptev Seas, and advised against sailing the Northeast Passage. Should she try, the best-case scenario would be she hits a dead end somewhere in the ice field and has to turn around; the worst-case is she gets stuck in the ice. "When the Russian Deputy General for Navigation of the Northern Sea Route advises against it, that's not the kind of advice you ignore," she stated.

Despite the setback, Ella’s still the first British woman to sail the Northwest Passage solo, and along with Tamara Klink and a handful of others, one of the very few people in history to have done so.

Tamara and the Sardinha 2 have already rounded Point Barrow and are about 45 miles ahead of the Yeva. Her plan is to continue southwest to Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost continental point of the United States and the North American mainland, and from there straight south into the Pacific. Her goal was always to complete the Northwest Passage, which she has, and not a circumnavigation like Ella. "I think we’ve crossed the last pieces of ice of this trip," she noted.

The Yeva will probably winter somewhere on the Pacific coast, probably in Alaska or Canada, before attempting the Northeast Passage in 2026. I have no idea where Tamara is off to next after she enters the Pacific.   

Hats off and sincerest congratulations to both Ella Hibbert and the Yeva, and to Tamara Klink and the Sardinha 2, for their challenging and arduous journey. They're both burlap heroes for braving what few of us could even imagine.